American runner Christian Coleman backed up his worldwide dominance in sprint racing by taking the gold medal in the 60-meter dash timed at 6.37 seconds in the 2018 IAAF World Indoor Athletics Championships.
Seven months after the retirement of the world's greatest all-time sprinter, Usain Bolt, Coleman ratified once again at the athletics championships here on Saturday, his position as the new king of sprint by winning the 60 meters in 6.37 seconds, a new record for the IAAF championships and just a split-second behind his own world record of 6.34 seconds that he set last month.
China's Bingtian Su was the runner-up with an Asian record (6.42), followed by America's Ronnie Baker (6.44), reports Efe.
The 21-year-old sprinter from Atlanta came to show he was the true successor to Jamaican star Bolt, but first he had to beat Baker, second in the world ranking with a 6.40-second effort, and the impetuous Bingtian Su, third with 6.43 seconds.
Meanwhile, the Ethiopian middle and long-distance runner Ginzebe Dibaba became a double champion by winning the 1,500 meters in 4:05:27, two days after taking gold in the 3,000 meters, replicating the performance of Rumania's Gabriela Szabo in 1999.
This time Holland's Sifan Hassan came in second and the UK's Laura Muir was third, while in the 3,000 meters Muir was second and Hassan was third.
The great disappointment of the day was suffered by the Spaniard Oscar Husillos and the Dominican Luguelin Santos, who looked to have won gold and silver in the 400 meters, only to be disqualified for stepping off the track.
The gold medal then went to the Czech Pavel Maskal with a time of 45.47 seconds, while Michael Cherry of the US got silver and Dion Lendore took the bronze.
In the 800 meters, Poland's Adam Kszczot, unbeaten in eight races, used his usual tactic of leading from start to finish to take gold in 1:47.47.
In the 60-meter hurdles, America's Kendra Harrison at last won her first world championship in 7.70 seconds, a split-second off the world record set by Sweden's Susanna Kallur.
--IANS
sam/bg
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